Spiral Knights - Need advice for a new shield that isn't Owlite

Need advice for a new shield that isn't Owlite

8 replies [Last post]

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 02:42

Saberthwaite

So, after much consternation, I have decided that it is high time to retire my battle-scarred Mighty Defender. It's served me well over the past few months, but I feel it's time to move on. I'm highly hesitant to go Owlite, as everyone and their mother seems to have one, and I'm rather annoyed by people who tell me "Durr, Owlite ony sheeld hurr durr.", and I just don't like the thing's look anyway.

So, what to pick?

Thus far, I've picked out a few options:

-Upgrade to a Heater Shield. I've heard elemental resistance is good on a shield, and from experience I'm inclined to agree. With Normal and Elemental resistance combined with the fact that it's 5* and I've got the prereq for it, I'm almost inclined to go for it.

-Build up a Skelly Shield. Shadow-dmg enemies are the bane of my existence at the moment, with the ever-annoying Devlites and evasive Kats constantly smashing my poor Defender. I would be upgrading this to 4* at the earliest opportunity.

-Build up a Plate Shield. I've heard good things about the Volcanic variant of this line, and it's not the Owlite. Based upon the bars, which I know are often wrong, this shield line should perform adequately no matter what quadrant of the 'works I end up in. I'd love to hear how the Plate line stacks up to comparable shields, how many hits from a gun puppy I'd be sacrificing for however many hits from a devlite, etc.

-Just run FSC like mad and get a Blackened Crest. The rationale behind this is the same as that for the Skelly, although I have yet to do much in T3 at all, let alone actually run FSC. I hate being "That Guy", so this is a long shot, at best.

For background, I mostly run a musketeer-type loadout, as in single-sword single-gun, with the latest combo I've tried being the Dark Thorn Blade with a Kilowatt Pulsar. My armor is Miracle Hood/Sunset Duster, with intent to go Divine Veil/Shadowsun Slicker.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 03:15

Fradow

If you want to run T3, you'll

If you want to run T3, you'll probably want a shield for each type of damage.

As for Heater Shield vs Owlite Shield, there is a reason Owlite shield is prefered in most case. They both have elemental resist, so as you point, elemental resistance is good on a shield. The main difference is the status effect resistance. Heater shield as a freeze resistance. While this is annoying, that's a lot less than Fire (you can't shield fire damage) and Shock (which incapacitate you for a second), and Owlite has both of those resistance. That's why you WANT an Owlite shield for most situation. Well, a Heater shield will perform better in an Ice Stratum, but there are more Fire and Shock.

As for a Shadow resistance shield, you basically have two choices : Skelly or Blackened Crest. The real question is : are you able to run FSC enough to have the Blackened ? As for Owlite vs Heater, the Blackened seem to be the better solution because of status effect resistance, but is harder to obtain.

For the Plate Shield, I also heard a lot of good things, but I'll let someone more experienced answer you.

As for the last type of resistance, piercing, only beast and slimes do piercing damage, and they are not the worst enemy to face, so I think, for the moment, you can forget about it.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 03:31

Charlie-Day

Besides your main weapon I

Besides your main weapon I consider the shield to be your most important single piece of gear. I can understand the counter-mainstream thinking with the goal of being different since we have costume slots, but not when concerning shields. Owlite could be called and look like a "Piece of vomit stuck to a board", if it has the most important stats that make me enjoy the game more (i.e. not die a cheap death at the hand of gun puppies, burning or being shocked into permanent stunlock) I'd take it. I consider "and it's not the Owlite" not a valid argument.

But alright, if that's your prerogative. I'll start giving useful comments instead:

Plate shield is almost a perfect FSC shield, but it's not as well rounded as your other options. I consider the crest superior to the skellie shield. So pick either a heater shield or blackened crest.

The heater shield has elemental but just frost resistance, shock is more dangerous since when frozen one enemy hit will set you free again with temporary invulnerability, shock persists for a long time even with the veil. The missing fire resist also hurts in FSC.

The crest of almire is like owlite's stats, just with shadow instead of elemental. Just take care to avoid shielding retrodes, lumbers, gun puppies (most constructs really), charged quicksilver and kats/gremlin projectiles. If you pick something without elemental defense, you should keep the pulsar on you at all times and take it to polaris quickly. Most enemies with elemental damage hit hard but are slow, the pulsar takes advantage of that. Kats are an exception, be careful if they start spamming elemental bullets en masse.
Considering looks, the heater shield is a step back since it looks like a Great defender, the shield you upgraded your mighty defender from but with a color change. Crest of almire looks like an aegis, but with a red tint to it. It's an immediate status symbol too, since you've successfully ran vanaduke 9-10 times.

Since you're one step away from a heater already, get it and use it to run FSC. The lack of fire resist will hurt, but the elemental resist is helpful. You'll have to compensate with skill and maybe polaris shooting. Then save up for a crest and switch in FSC if so inclined for more farming, and also in fiend heavy strata.

Just a small FYI: the divine veil takes a beating from its missing normal defense. Almost everything in the game does 100% normal or 50% with 50% special damage (shadow, pierce, elemental). You could use normal defense on your headpiece too. Hope it helps.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 10:17

Icee

Very little normal damage in tier 3.

After tier 1, only Gremlins do (almost) 100% normal damage (menders shoot elemental ember bolts). In tier 2 everything does at least 50% normal, but in tier 3 the normal damage is primarily from gremlins and a handful of attacks from constructs, plus maybe a few percent on some other attacks. Divine veil and dragon mail are fine in most of tier 3, because you'll see very little normal damage compared to other types, but you wouldn't want to go into tier 2 without normal defense.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 10:40

Bigfootm

Volcanic Plate shield. Then

Volcanic Plate shield. Then get a Crest of Almire. Skelly sucks.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 11:12

culture

Legacy Username

@Icee

Vanaduke does mostly normal and zombies still do half normal in T3. Fortunately, having shadow instead of normal from the Divine Veil offsets the lack of normal when up against the zombies.

I'm inclined to agree that Volcanic Plate Shield is a strong defensive alternative to Owlite. It doesn't have elemental but the massive health holds up well to gun puppy attacks. Might consider the Barbarous Thorn Shield too, it doesn't offer much in the way of defense but the sword bonus is really nice to have.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 12:34

Mohandar

Heater is usable but not great

A quick perusal of http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Shields (sort by * rank) suggests that anything other than Grey Owlite is going to gimp you, as the two primary sources of fire and shock tend to dish out either shadow or elemental. A Heater isn't unusable (and you will enjoy a distinct advantage in Ice Maul arenas) but most other places you'll be at a slight to moderate disadvantage. If you can handle that (and it sounds like you can), go for the Heater.
I would do Grey Owl, Crest, and Barbarous Thorn (Aegis if you want the extra def, but the sword boost is much more useful); and a Volcanic Plate to specialize in Vanaduke runs. If you have these four shields, then you probably want UVs that maximize the protection they give you: so for Owlite, you probably want elemental or normal; for Crest, normal/shadow; for Thorn, normal/pierce; and VPS, elemental/normal. On the other hand, if you only have one or two (and don't intend on getting the others), then it benefits you to get UVs that cover weaknesses in your shield.

Sun, 08/14/2011 - 00:19

Saberthwaite

Thanks for the C&C, I'll keep

Thanks for the C&C, I'll keep it in mind.

One thing I don't understand though, is how shield status resistances work. I've heard many conflicting statements. They only come into play if the status is inflicted while your shield's up, when your shield's broken, if you put your shield up after getting status'd, etc. Which is it? If it's one of those first two, I'd almost be inclined to disregard them altogether.

Sun, 08/14/2011 - 01:47

timanth

Legacy Username

Contrary to popular belief,

Contrary to popular belief, there are not only 3 damage types that enemies can inflict on you. Any enemy that causes a status effect with its attack also carries a portion of its damage as "status" damage. Most notably, the gremlin pyros and Red Rover gunpuppies have almost purely fire-status damage. Thus, you'll notice that if you shield their attacks with an owlite, the shield will suffer basically no deterioration because it has maximum fire resistance. So they come into play the same way the typical damage type defenses on a shield come into play.

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Need advice for a new shield that isn't Owlite